shared memory not initialized

reso · #1 (**permalink**) 12-18-02, 09:52

I am very new to IDS, so i will ask stupid questions

We have an old informix on a SCO 5, we got a new upgrade IDS 9.3, and we installed it on a redhat 7.3, the installation did fine.
I did not install the old IDS we have on SCO, and the one who did that, is long gone, so hes not around to help use out here.
After 4 hours reading the manual, i got confused, im not sure where to go or what to do now?
I made the onconfig, allmoste default, but changed dbservername, tempspace, rootpath, rootsize, nettype and i changed the sqlhosts, to match nettype, dbservername in onconfig.
After i did that, i tryed the onmonitor. The error i get when, im running "onmonitor, mode, statup" is

"shared memory not initialized for INFORMIXSERVER '<NULL>'"

Im not sure what i have to do here, anyone here that can give me a hand??

bburow · #2 (**permalink**) 12-18-02, 11:17

I think you must set INFORMIXSERVER in your Enviroment with the same Value as in your sqlhosts.

export INFORMIXSERVER=<dbservername>

You must add this to your global profile.

Quote:

Originally posted by reso
I am very new to IDS, so i will ask stupid questions

We have an old informix on a SCO 5, we got a new upgrade IDS 9.3, and we installed it on a redhat 7.3, the installation did fine.
I did not install the old IDS we have on SCO, and the one who did that, is long gone, so hes not around to help use out here.
After 4 hours reading the manual, i got confused, im not sure where to go or what to do now?
I made the onconfig, allmoste default, but changed dbservername, tempspace, rootpath, rootsize, nettype and i changed the sqlhosts, to match nettype, dbservername in onconfig.
After i did that, i tryed the onmonitor. The error i get when, im running "onmonitor, mode, statup" is

"shared memory not initialized for INFORMIXSERVER '<NULL>'"

Im not sure what i have to do here, anyone here that can give me a hand??

reso · #3 (**permalink**) 12-19-02, 04:44

Well the only thing that did, was this line:
shared memory not initialized for INFORMIXSERVER 'online_8'
Insted off 'null' i know got the server name, now about that shared memory, is that somthing i need to compile into my kernel, or is there a option somwhere i didnt use??

Roelwe · #4 (**permalink**) 12-19-02, 10:10

Try 'oninit -V' to start the engine or 'oninit -ivy' to initialize the engine?
If you initialize you loose all data in the database. Did you copy the data? Or are you just building an instance from scratch?

bburow · #5 (**permalink**) 12-19-02, 10:22

This is a completely new installation of Informix on this Server?

Then you must first Initialize the DBSpace with "onmonitor -> Parameters -> Initialize".
You must do this only by the first time, with this Procedure all Data will be destroyed.
At the end of this procedure Informix must be in "quiescent mode" and you can bring it online.

Normally there is no need to compile the Kernel, shared memory is something that informix builds temporarily in your ram.

Good Luck :-)

Quote:

Originally posted by reso
Well the only thing that did, was this line:
shared memory not initialized for INFORMIXSERVER 'online_8'
Insted off 'null' i know got the server name, now about that shared memory, is that somthing i need to compile into my kernel, or is there a option somwhere i didnt use??

Roelwe · #6 (**permalink**) 12-19-02, 10:30

Just FYI. onmonitor is no longer supported as an official tool to bring an engine online.
onmode and oninit are supported.
check syntax with
oninit --
onmode --

If you could already send us the information in your message log file, to identify what went wrong.

reso · #7 (**permalink**) 12-20-02, 04:22

That did help, now i can start it up.
If i use the cmd "oninit -iy" its going online, and now i can use "onmonitor", thanks for the help guys.
I have one more question, right now i use raw block device, for me databases, but i heard that if i use a character device, insted of a block device, i can move data on the fly, in case that is tru, dose anyone know how i can create a raw character device. I used fdisk to create the device im running on right now..

Roelwe · #8 (**permalink**) 12-20-02, 07:21

On Linux you can only use raw blocked devices.
Remeber KAIO is not supported on Linux.
What do you mean by moving data on the fly?

reso · #9 (**permalink**) 12-20-02, 12:36

We had an expert to help us out with some optimizeing on the informix, he told us that, if we used character devices, we could move the chunks around as we wish, the resone for this, is to move the databases we use the most, on the fastes disk we have, so the accsess time will be better. Our servers hardware is very old, but we have 8 new disks and they only run the temp database, we dont use them much, so if we could move the database we use often on the fly, it whould be easy to optimize.
Like i said at the beginning im a newbie as for informix, tody i just learnd what oninit -iy do, on a running system. I didnt ready enough of the mans. Not a good, not good at all, sys break on 8 hours now

.
But the good thing about it is, i now know what oninit dose heh, thats a start.

Rene

ladwig · #10 (**permalink**) 12-23-02, 03:01

HI,
a raw device is a simple partition. Define it like a normal patition but don`t mount it to your system. Give Informix a symbolic link to this partition for your DBspace. With symbolic links you are able to change the partitions for example if there is a disk crash. Just plug in another disk define a partition with same sizes for an link it. Is that what you mean with FLY?